Watch Shayna Klee's Short Film "Life Inside My Shell"
Shayna Klee whose popular YouTube channel The Purple Palace, a whimsical storytelling about being an American art student in Paris (read our interview). Klee is unlike your “Emily in Paris” vlogger, although she does take you to her favorite spots around Paris. She is an artist profiling a new generation of Parisian Artists, who like herself are thoughtfully inclined to use their art to explore life’s dilemmas and self-discovery.
In her short film Life Inside My Shell , the effects of quarantine has inspired the artist to “explore the themes of isolation, online personas and privilege through the use of satire.” A vibrant theatrical backdrop places Klee inside her own solitude. Klee explains, “In it, a girl lives inside a giant conch shell and takes you through the motions of a normal “day in the life”; Cleaning the house, eating a bowl of cereal, rearranging her furniture.”
She even pokes harmless fun at YouTube vloggers, which I feel she pulls off charmingly. For example, Klee portrays herself to be a beauty guru as she applies glitter along her cheeks and referring to it as highlighter. And there’s the ever popular vlog clickbait of a house tour, but Klee’s clever twist is of course re-titled the “Official Shell Tour”.
According to Klee, the shell is a metaphor for these current global times of unrest. She believes a shell offers protection yet is also a curse. It leads me to question if these months of solitude has helped us at all? Or perhaps our lack of choices have allowed us to actually make better, clearer decisions. The shell that is our quarantine life, has it been a blessing in disguise?
